Happy Mistress Day! Just in time for the day before Valentine’s Day, when cheating husbands reputedly meet with their non-spouses, the Weeknd has unveiled a video for “Twenty Eight,” a spectral, wounded Trilogy electro-R&B falsetto-smolderer about sleeping with someone he shouldn’t have. Directed by Los Angeles-based, Australia-reared Nabil Elderkin, who also directed Frank Ocean’s similarly audacious “Pyramids” video (and, coincidentally, photographed Ocean for SPIN), the clip is spellbinding, enigmatic, and NSFW. Abel Tesfaye sits on camera with a suit-wearing bearded man who speaks a European language, a flickering ghost-woman watches on TV, and yes, there are topless woman pole-dancing and swimming. As in the Weeknd’s music, though, any sexuality here is less about cheap titillation (sorry) than about soul-crushing, bottle-service-deadened misery. All of which we’re pretty sure would’ve violated the Grammy Awards’ “Standard and Practice Wardrobe Advisory.”
If the video above doesn’t work, watch it at the Weeknd’s website.
